2 JOHN (NOTES OF A READING)
[p. 427] 2 JOHN (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC Is any other part of Scripture directly addressed to a sister? This part is apparently addressed to a widow with children for there is no mention of her husband. This would show that it was intended by the Spirit of God especially for the instruction of sisters; that is the special setting of it by the Spirit.
Rem The end of the epistle says, “The children of thine elect sister greet thee”.
CAC It seems to be a sister’s epistle, and it is noticeable that God expects sisters to give careful attention to doctrine, does it not? We should have thought that the question of doctrine would be brought before elders or brothers, but this shows that sisters have to be very careful about doctrine. Every sister has to be careful what kind of people she receives into her house, and what kind of people she is on friendly terms with.
Ques “Now I beseech thee, lady” (verse 5); is there a dignity connected with it?
CAC Yes, she is one who has a special place in the testimony, showing a sister may, without getting out of her place as a sister, be a pillar of the truth, a bulwark of the truth, and a comfort to everybody. I think sisters should covet to be very helpful in the testimony.
Rem Two whole books in the Old Testament are written in reference to women.
CAC In the assembly the woman is restored to her full place in glory, would you say? Outside the influence of christianity, woman has not much place. She is not thought much of in India, for instance.
Rem Ruth and Rahab are instances.
CAC Women should be thankful for christianity; they have an importance and dignity not found outside. She gets [p. 428] her place in christianity, and she does not anywhere else.
Rem The man is not without the woman in the Lord; it is a very great principle.
CAC So it would displease the Lord for brothers to break bread without sisters; the assembly would not have its proper characteristics. Judaism never gave the woman her proper place, she was very much at the mercy of the man under the law. Any man could give a letter of divorce and send her away. It was hard-heartedness, the Lord said. It is remarkable how much the elder has to say about the truth.
Ques What is the thought of the elect lady?
CAC Well, my impression was that it was used in a moral sense, not merely that she was one of God’s elect, but she had such a character that she might be spoken of as a special one. There are two senses in which elect is used; one our sovereign election before the foundation of the world, and the other this choice of us as being acceptable in His sight. I think it was a term of honour. In Colossians 3: 12 you get, “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of compassion” etc., and Christ is spoken of as God’s Elect, “Mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth” (Isaiah 42: 1). God singled Him out as the object of His delight. “I have exalted one chosen out of the people” (Psalm 89: 19); it is as if His eyes rested on all and He picks out Christ as the One delightful to Himself.
Rem It is a wonderful commendation, “Whom I love in truth, and not I only but also all who have known the truth” — a marvellous commendation.
CAC She must have had an extraordinary place in that all who knew the truth loved her; she had a universal commendation. She hardly needed a letter of commendation if they all loved her!
Rem And her children. He says, “I rejoiced greatly that I have found of thy children walking in truth”. So the elect lady and her children were characteristically alike in that way.
[p. 429] CAC She must have been a peculiar support to the truth; she was identified with the truth. It lies open to each brother and each sister: we can be thoroughly identified with the truth.
Rem The expression “and her children” might go beyond what is natural and refer to those that followed her, as in Proverbs it might be said that her spiritual children will rise up and call her blessed.
CAC I think it could be taken as referring to those that are of that order.
Rem She evidently had not kept the truth to herself.
CAC John does not speak of the truth being in the Scripture, does he? We know that it is so, it is the Scripture of truth, but John speaks of the truth as abiding in the saints.
Ques What is the difference between the truth abiding in us and being “with us to eternity”? Why exactly is it not in us to eternity, but with us?
CAC There could not be any change in the truth, and it will be the portion and joy of saints to eternity.
Ques Does it suggest the continuity of the truth, a wonderful deposit that would be with the saints for eternity? The truth remains a wonderful reality.
Ques Do you bring in the thought of Christ here, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life”?
CAC Yes, He is the truth, and the Spirit is said to be the truth in the last chapter of the first epistle, and of course the truth is about the Father. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father unless by me” (John 14: 6), so He is the way to the Father, the truth about the Father and the life in which the Father can be enjoyed. The truth takes in the whole divine economy and so goes on for the whole of eternity. The Father, Son and Spirit go on eternally; we shall never have to part with what we know of the Father, the Son or the Spirit.
Rem The Lord could say to Martha, “Mary has chosen the good part, the which shall not be taken from her”
(Luke 10: 42).
CAC She was another elect lady, was she not? It is God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father; all the truth centres there. The Father is the Name of grace. We sang this morning, ‘Blest Father, infinite in grace’, and He is the Object of worship.
I suppose the precious title, “The Son of the Father”, connects the Lord Jesus Christ with all the grace that is in the Father; all is expressed in Him; we need to let what He is flow into our hearts; thus God loves to be worshipped as the Father — that is what He is.
Rem It is the Son who came forth from the Father who makes Him known.
CAC Yes. The Father has a Son, so all that He is in infinite grace is set forth in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of the Father. I suppose that is why God so delighted in Him. It was all such an expression of grace, that He delighted in Him. When He was at the Jordan and took His place there with repentant sinners in lowliness of spirit, it was just then that He said, “This is my beloved Son”. How delightful to the Father to have One here who was such a perfect expression of His grace! Nothing can weaken or change what the Father is; it is one of the things that abide for eternity.
Rem It is interesting to contrast the epistles where you have grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, and there it stops.
CAC Yes, there is a beautiful touch here. And in verse 4, “As we have received commandment from the Father”, and again verse 9, “He has both the Father and the Son”. I think, if I am not mistaken, John uses in his gospel the name of Father about one hundred and twenty times. You do not get it like that in the other gospels; in them the word kingdom is characteristic. John has very little to say about the kingdom, but a great deal to say about the Father.
Rem In Proverbs, “I was a son unto my father”
(Proverbs 4: 3), is very beautiful in its spiritual principle.
CAC And we do not see the true glory of the Son until we see Him in that light. He is the true expression of the Father, and therefore delightful to Him. And we are brought into the circle of the Father and the Son; I suppose that is all included in the truth.
Rem “An only-begotten with a father” (John 1: 14).
CAC Yes, an only-begotten is a unique relationship very like this, “The Son of the Father”.
Rem You feel truth is not limited exactly to what is to be known of divine Persons, but it includes the relationship the saints are brought into; so it would complete the divine circle. I wondered if that was contained in the thought of the truth.
CAC Yes, so that the saints are objects of love. It is not only that the Father and the Son are worshipped, but the saints are loved; we do not worship them, we love them. There is a certain circle on earth that stands in relation to the Father and the Son. What about a person standing in relation to the Father and the Son? You could not help loving them! So truth cannot be separated from love, so the commandment comes in, “This is the commandment, according as ye have heard from the beginning, that ye might walk in it”. It would not be genuine apart from that, say if I only love the persons I like naturally. It is the Father’s commandment. I do not think that any but children will take up the Father’s commandment; it is a family matter.
Rem Did not F.E.R. speak of truth as the setting everything in its right relation? If right with God we should be with one another.
CAC The truth is primarily the setting forth of the blessed God, and we are living in a peculiar time when grace and truth are subsisting realities. There was no such thing in the Old Testament; it never subsisted until Christ was here. There was that behind the scenes that faith laid hold of, but it was behind the scenes. The public attitude of God was in [p. 432] the law, faith laid hold behind the scenes of the mercy and grace of God, but it has now come to light and we are in the time of grace and truth, not exactly in the public ways of God with the world, but as regards the testimony it is a time of unmingled grace. That God is dealing very severely with man in government is evident, but in testimony He is presenting Himself in pure grace.
A man reaps what he sows; that is never relaxed for anybody; but in grace He deals with anybody as they do not deserve. J.N.D. said that if God had come out in grace in Old Testament times, it would have spoilt everything. It pleased God to deal with man on the ground of law, but in the testimony of the gospel God is dealing with man in pure grace, saying, ‘It depends now upon what I am’. It is very important that truth should come first, light as to God and what He is as the Father.
Rem I wondered if one would follow the other. The love is incumbent as the result of the truth; love should emanate from the knowledge of the relationship.
CAC Quite so. Seeing the greatness of all this makes it very serious if there are deceivers. He says, “Many deceivers have gone out into the world”.
Ques You would associate complete transparency with the truth?
CAC Yes.
Rem Walk seems to be rather stressed in these verses 4 and 6.
Ques I was going to ask what that meant, “walking in truth” (verse 4)?
CAC Does it not suggest that all our movements are to be in the light of the revelation God has made of Himself, is that not to govern all our movements?
Ques Is it anything like the ship that is governed by the Pole Star, to use a simple illustration?
CAC Yes. But it is a very particular thing to have the revelation of the Father and the Son; it affects the way in [p. 433] which the saints move, they move in the light of the revelation. I believe every one of us does move in the light of how we know God. At Corinth, Paul says, there were some who were ignorant of God, so ignorant that they were giving up the truth of the resurrection. All errors of thought, all wrong thought and wrong practice flow from ignorance of God.